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Xfdesktop 4.10.1

  • March 2, 2013
  • Jérôme Guelfucci

I just released Xfdesktop 4.10.1 which contains some bug fixes and updated translations which had been there for months. Congratulations to Eric Koegel who committed most of them!

Amongst others, fixed background cycling and improved menu icons' loading are appreciated.

Changelog

  • Add a tabs width of padding for tooltip text (Bug #9162).
  • Fix theming of removable devices' icons (Bug #8977).
  • SVG images are no longer pixilated when scaled up.
  • Improve menu icon loading (Bug #8795).
  • Fix background cycling (Bug #8962).
  • Fix a crash when minimized window icons are resized (Bug #8963).
  • Fix use after free error in xfdesktop_regular_file_icon_peek_tooltip (Bug #9059).
  • Translation updates: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, Greek, Korean, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Turkish and Uyghur.

Xfdesktop 4.10.1

  • March 2, 2013
  • Jérôme Guelfucci

I just released Xfdesktop 4.10.1 which contains some bug fixes and updated translations which had been there for months. Congratulations to Eric Koegel who committed most of them!

Amongst others, fixed background cycling and improved menu icons' loading are appreciated.

Changelog

  • Add a tabs width of padding for tooltip text (Bug #9162).
  • Fix theming of removable devices' icons (Bug #8977).
  • SVG images are no longer pixilated when scaled up.
  • Improve menu icon loading (Bug #8795).
  • Fix background cycling (Bug #8962).
  • Fix a crash when minimized window icons are resized (Bug #8963).
  • Fix use after free error in xfdesktop_regular_file_icon_peek_tooltip (Bug #9059).
  • Translation updates: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, Greek, Korean, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Turkish and Uyghur.

Xfdesktop 4.10.1

  • March 2, 2013
  • Jérôme Guelfucci

I just released Xfdesktop 4.10.1 which contains some bug fixes and updated translations which had been there for months. Congratulations to Eric Koegel who committed most of them!

Amongst others, fixed background cycling and improved menu icons' loading are appreciated.

Changelog

  • Add a tabs width of padding for tooltip text (Bug #9162).
  • Fix theming of removable devices' icons (Bug #8977).
  • SVG images are no longer pixilated when scaled up.
  • Improve menu icon loading (Bug #8795).
  • Fix background cycling (Bug #8962).
  • Fix a crash when minimized window icons are resized (Bug #8963).
  • Fix use after free error in xfdesktop_regular_file_icon_peek_tooltip (Bug #9059).
  • Translation updates: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, Greek, Korean, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Turkish and Uyghur.

Parole 0.4.0 is out!

  • January 12, 2013
  • Jérôme Guelfucci

A new awesome release of the Parole media player for Xfce is out and ships all the hard work of Sean Davis and Simon Steinbeiss.

Sean wrote an extensive description of this new release on his blog, with tons of screenshots. As stated there, do not hesitate to give them feedback on this new release and to file any issue you may have on the Xfce Bugzilla.

Here is a screenshot of the new very nice main view while playing an audio file:

Parole 0.4.0

Congratulations to Sean and Simon for this excellent work!

Xfce4-terminal 0.6.x keyboard shortcuts

  • January 5, 2013
  • Jérôme Guelfucci

A lot of users seem to be wondering how to edit keyboard shortcuts in xfce4-terminal 0.6.x. The built-in shortcut editor is indeed gone and the application now uses editable GTK+ accelerators like other GTK+ applications. This is more consistent and allows to drop the exo dependency which makes the application lighter.

The FAQ of the Xfce documentation has a guide on how to edit GTK+ accelerators of xfce4-terminal. You'll get your custom shortcuts back in no time!

PS: xfce4-terminal 0.6.1 is out and has a killer "drop-down" mode ala guake / tilda. See Nick's Google+ page for screenshots.

Work in progress to improve keyboard shortcuts in Xfce

  • December 23, 2012
  • Jérôme Guelfucci

Long time no blog! I started to hack again last week with the goal of improving keyboard shortcuts handling in Xfce. I touched that during the Xfce 4.10 cycle and this unfortunately seem to have introduced a bunch of bugs that I'm now trying to resolve. I also took this opportunity to try to overhaul the UI and make it more understandable.

This code is available in the jeromeg/keyboard-shortcuts branches of xfwm4, libxfce4ui and xfce4-settings on the Xfce Git server. Some improvements are still planned but most of what I was planning is already implemented.

Here is a list of reported bugs which should be fixed once I merge this:

A brief summary: shortcuts now work when Caps Lock is on, shortcuts using Shift or the numeric keypad are handled correctly, a bunch of regressions are fixed, conflict handling is now more reliable and the UI should be better.

Regarding keyboard shortcuts bugs, keyboard shortcuts not working correctly after a reboot or not work working in some other cases seem to occur because of a "wrong" shortcut database often caused by a problem in the migration script in Xfce 4.6. In that case, the easier way to fix this seems to be to revert all keyboard shortcuts to default (in xfwm4-settings and xfce4-keyboard-settings) and to rebind them using the dialogs.

Screenshots

Readable shortcut labels in the UI

Shortcuts view with now with readable labels

Improved dialogs to add and edit shortcuts

Set shortcut command

Set shortcut keys

Improved conflict handling

conflict-dialog.png

Testing is welcome!

If you know what you are doing, it would be useful if you could test those changes and report me by mail any remaining issues. Suggestions for improvements are also welcome.

How to start contributing to Xfce or any other open source project

  • November 4, 2012
  • Jannis Pohlmann

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this website and even longer since I’ve written anything useful. But since I’ve received a couple of mails from people looking to contribute to Xfce recently, I thought I’d share some “wisdom” acquired over the past few years while working on Xfce and doing a lot of community work. My thoughts are not limited to Xfce and will apply to a lot of other projects out there as well.

Here’s the bitter truth for those looking for some quick pointers to start contributing to Xfce: you’ll have to find out yourself.

The reason is not that we are lazy or wouldn’t welcome your contributions. In fact, the reason, I believe, is very simple: you will be more excited, motivated and, ultimate, be more successful if you work on something that interests you. We can help you in making the decision what to invest your time in easier, e.g. by listing projects, features or issues that we or our users consider worth working on. Some projects do this very visibly (e.g. through bounties). In Xfce, this information is hidden in the depths of the wiki. Here are a few links that you may find interesting:

Clearly, the above information could be more visible. There could be a prominent link on the Xfce website to a well-maintained and up-to-date list. Would that help people? Maybe.

Perhaps it is a good thing that the information isn’t just one click away. Open source projects have always been about scratching your own itch. This is how I got involved in everything I’ve done over the years. this approach is reflected by what people do and sometimes even by how companies make money. Thinking about it now, it is a concept deeply rooted in the evolution of mankind (think: the invention and improvement of tools, industrialisation and all that shit).

So: scratch your own itch.

If you want to start contributing to a project, try this exercise:

  • Look at the project, think about what you don’t like or what you feel could be improved
  • Try to collect information on what pieces are involved in e.g. the feature you’re missing or the bug you’ve spotted
  • Try to find the place where you could try adding your feature or fixing your bug
  • Ask whether developers are interested in the feature or look at whether there already is an item for your issue in the bug tracker
  • The rest is communication and coding

It’s not a fast path because you might not be able to contribute something of great value in the beginning. But if you’re dedicated, have enough spare time to make a difference and are keen on improving things step by step, you might eventually reach a point where you take over responsibility for more and more exciting or important tasks.

Good luck!

Xubuntu is not a refugee camp

  • August 19, 2012
  • Pasi Lallinaho

In growing amounts, people are migrating to Xubuntu from Ubuntu and other derivatives. While many of our new users tell they love Xubuntu, some of them would like to see a feature from their old configuration, be that a feature from their desktop environment or an application closely tied with it.

I don’t blame them for wanting different features than I do. I truly think there is users for every major and minor desktop environment. There will not be one desktop environment to rule them all, just because peoples opinions on looks and the perfect workflow differ thoroughly.

When our new users ask if they can have their feature, we have to ask them, and especially, what the user needs to ask theirself is if the feature, or the lack of, is really something that makes or breaks their experience. If they don’t think they can be at home without that feature, I wholeheartedly recommend them to keep using what they had.

If they are uncertain, I’d really like them to try to see the coin from the other side. Xfce nor Xubuntu have never  tried to be like GNOME or Ubuntu. When Unity came around, Xubuntu never tried to become a substitute for GNOME 2 -like Ubuntu either, or specifically persuade migrating users.

The Xfce team has always been executing their own vision of the perfect desktop environment. Since the vision has been in some parts similar to GNOME earlier, some might argue that Xfce should still follow GNOME’s footsteps by implementing some new features similar to GNOME’s new features. I don’t think this is logical thinking, and it sounds like it comes from somebody who thinks Xfce should satisfy people who are migrating from GNOME.

The same goes with Xubuntu too: we are still building Xubuntu on top of Xfce because we like how it is and can agree with their vision. If this will ever change, it’s self-evident that either the people running Xubuntu need to change or Xubuntu needs to stop being. That being said, I don’t think that’s going to happen in the foreseeable future.

Finally, I’d like to emphasize that all users migrating from Ubuntu and other desktop environments are warmly welcome to the Xubuntu community. There are many ways to achieve the same goal when it comes to desktop environments. We believe Xfce is the best one for us as it has been and as it is. We are not a refugee camp, we have decided to take this path. This is our home.

This article is part of the article series .

Vim and Vala

  • July 30, 2012
  • Mike Massonnet
I once wrote a quick note about Vala and Vim (or Vim and Vala) and the use of the Tag List plugin. Here is a clean post about these two beasts.

Vim — probably the best editor out there, at least always after trying out different editors I end up with Vim — has great plugins. However there is a lack of support for the Vala language. So here are two basic add-ins to include in the Vim editor.

Vala syntax

First there is no syntax color for this language. A quick fix is to use the C# syntax with the command :set filetype=cs. That works but is not ideal, ideal is to install a vim.syntax file, and there is one available on this GNOME Live! page.

First download the file from this page and save it under ~/.vim/syntax. Next at the following lines to your ~/.vimrc file:
" Filetypes
augroup filetypedetect
        au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.vala,*.vapi setfiletype vala
augroup END

augroup vala
        autocmd BufRead *.vala,*.vapi set tw=100 efm=%f:%1.%c-%[%^:]%#:\ %t%[%^:]%#:\ %m
augroup END

Tag List

Tag List is a powerful plugin that lets you explore classes or functions from a source file, also called a source code browser. The installation steps are simple, they are also available bellow, and again to get it working with Vim there is a small hack to include inside the ~/.vimrc file.

First download the latest version of taglist from this page. Than uncompress the archive with, for example, the command line: 
unzip -x taglist_45.zip -d $HOME/.vim/
Than go inside ~/.vim/doc, run Vim and inside Vim execute the command :helptags .: 
cd ~/.vim/doc
vim
:helptags .
Finally add the following lines inside ~/.vimrc: 
" Work-around Tag List for Vala
let tlist_vala_settings='c#;d:macro;t:typedef;n:namespace;c:class;'.
  \ 'E:event;g:enum;s:struct;i:interface;'.
  \ 'p:properties;m:method'

Now Vim is ready for Vala, and it's possible to browse source code by typing the command :TListToggle.

Screenshot of Vim Vala Tag List
Vim Vala Tag List

Vim and Vala

  • July 30, 2012
  • Mike Massonnet
I once wrote a quick note about Vala and Vim (or Vim and Vala) and the use of the Tag List plugin. Here is a clean post about these two beasts.

Vim — probably the best editor out there, at least always after trying out different editors I end up with Vim — has great plugins. However there is a lack of support for the Vala language. So here are two basic add-ins to include in the Vim editor.

Vala syntax

First there is no syntax color for this language. A quick fix is to use the C# syntax with the command :set filetype=cs. That works but is not ideal, ideal is to install a vala.syntax file, and there is one available on this GNOME Live! page.

First download the file from this page and save it under ~/.vim/syntax/. Next add the following lines to your ~/.vimrc file:
" Filetypes
augroup filetypedetect
        au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.vala,*.vapi setfiletype vala
augroup END

augroup vala
        autocmd BufRead *.vala,*.vapi set tw=100 efm=%f:%1.%c-%[%^:]%#: %t%[%^:]%#: %m
augroup END

Tag List

Tag List is a powerful plugin that lets you explore classes or functions from a source file, also called a source code browser. The installation steps are simple, they are also available bellow, and again to get it working with Vala there is a small hack to include inside the ~/.vimrc file.

First download the latest version of taglist from this page. Then uncompress the archive with, for example, the command line: 
unzip -x taglist_45.zip -d $HOME/.vim/
Then go inside ~/.vim/doc, run Vim and inside Vim execute the command :helptags .: 
cd ~/.vim/doc
vim
:helptags .
Finally add the following lines inside ~/.vimrc: 
" Work-around Tag List for Vala
let tlist_vala_settings='c#;d:macro;t:typedef;n:namespace;c:class;'.
   'E:event;g:enum;s:struct;i:interface;'.
   'p:properties;m:method'

Now Vim is ready for Vala, and it's possible to browse source code by typing the command :TlistToggle.

Screenshot of Vim Vala Tag List
Vim Vala Tag List